Torstein Einang Eckhoff (5 June 1916 – 17 April 1993) was a Norwegian civil servant and professor of law at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top univers ...

Personal life

He was born in

Vestre Slidre Vestre Slidre is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Valdres. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Slidre. Other villages in Vestre Slidre include Lomen and Røn. ...

as the son of shipmaster Trygve Eckhoff (1884–1957) and his wife Sigrid Einang (1886–1971). He was a brother of designer

Mathias Gerrard Eckhoff Mathias Gerhard "Tias" Eckhoff (25 June 1926 – 30 January 2016)
was a Norwegian Ernst Fredrik Eckhoff Ernst Fredrik Eckhoff (28 April 1905 – 14 September 1997) was a Norwegian judge. He was born in 1905 as a son of jurist Nicolay Kristian Schreuder Eckhoff (1870–1955). He was a second cousin of legal academic Torstein Eckhoff, designer Tias ...

and actor Johannes Eckhoff, and a grandnephew of architect Niels Stockfleth Darre Eckhoff. In 1941 he married psychologist Eva Bergliot Råness (1921–1991). They resided at Eiksmarka.

Career

Eckhoff finished his secondary education in 1934, and enrolled in law studies at the

. He graduated with the

cand.jur. Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. No ...

degree in 1938, and worked as a deputy judge on the island of Senja until 1940. He then became a lecturer of law, and released several books during World War II. His 1945 book ''Rettskraft'' earned him the dr.juris degree in 1947. In 1945 he was hired in the

Ministry of Justice and the Police The Royal Ministry of Justice and Public Security ( no, Det kongelige justis- og beredskapsdepartement) is a Norwegian government ministry that oversees justice, the police, and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the ministry is to provide ...

, where he was promoted to assistant secretary after one year. He spent a period from 1947 to 1948 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

; this resulted in the book ''Rettsvesen og rettsvitenskap i USA'' (1953). In 1953 he left the Ministry of Justice, being appointed as a lecturer at the

. He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

from 1955, and was promoted to professor of jurisprudence in 1957. He retired in 1986. Among the books he wrote are ''Rettskildelære'' (1971) and ''Forvaltningsrett'' (1978). The latter has since his death been updated and edited by

Eivind Smith Eivind Smith (born 4 December 1949) is a Norwegian jurist and professor of law. He was born in Bærum, and took the dr.juris degree in 1979. Since 1986, he has been Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. He is a member of t ...

, while the former is taken care of by

Jan E. Helgesen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article N ...

. Both books are still important parts of the curriculum at the University of Oslo. Eckhoff was also known for cooperating with law sociologist

Vilhelm Aubert Johan Vilhelm Aubert (7 June 1922 – 19 July 1988) was an influential Norwegian sociologist. He was a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo from 1963 to 1971 and at the Department of Sociology from 1971 to 1988. He co-founded t ...

and philosopher of law Nils Kristian Sundby. He held

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

s at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

, the

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, s ...

and the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

, and a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

was issued for his seventieth birthday. Regarded as Norway's leading authority on

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

law, Eckhoff was known for his work outside of academica as an opponent of Norwegian membership in the community, later the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

. He referred to the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...

agreement as "a constitutional catastrophe", and played an important role in the debate leading up to the Norwegian rejection in the Norwegian European Union membership referendum of 1994. However, he did not live to see the result as he died in April 1993 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckhoff, Torstein 1916 births 1993 deaths People from Vestre Slidre Norwegian civil servants Norwegian legal scholars University of Oslo alumni Academics of the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo Norwegian expatriates in the United States Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters